Information storage devices are used to retrieve and/or store data in computers and other consumer electronics devices. A magnetic hard disk drive is an example of an information storage device that includes one or more heads that can both read and write, but other information storage devices also include heads—sometimes including heads that cannot write. For convenience, all heads that can read are referred to as “read heads” herein, regardless of other devices and functions the read head may also perform (e.g. writing, flying height control, touch down detection, lapping control, etc).
In a modern magnetic hard disk drive device, each read head is a sub-component of a head gimbal assembly (HGA). The read head typically includes a slider and a read/write transducer. The read/write transducer typically comprises a magneto-resistive read element (e.g. so-called giant magneto-resistive read element, or a tunneling magneto-resistive read element) and an inductive write structure comprising a flat coil deposited by photolithography and a yoke structure having pole tips that face a disk media.
Energy assisted or heat assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) exploits the drop in a magnetic medium's coercivity when the disk's temperature is raised to near the Curie level. This allows use of magnetic media with high room-temperature coercivities by heating the media prior to the write operation.
In an EAMR disk drive, an energy source, such as a laser, is coupled to the read head. For example, the energy source may be coupled to the back of the slider. The head further comprises a module for delivering the energy to the hard disk. For example, a near-field transducer (NFT) may be used to the transmit the energy from the energy source to the hard disk.
A sub-assembly comprising the laser and associated components (the “laser mount”) is typically bonded to the slider by soldering. However, the high temperatures used to re-flow the solder to bond the laser mount to the slider may be harmful to the magnetic head. Additionally, the soldering temperatures may exacerbate thermal mismatch between the different materials to be joined.